Some pics from Denver Trollopolloza 2009

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So I have to say that I had a fabulous time in Denver hanging out with Anne and Janiece and Jeri. What I enjoyed the most was the opportunity to talk and laugh and relax and be silly. It allowed me to come back to work today feeling far more capable and personable than I have in weeks.

The only down side was we had issues with out flights coming and going, both of which had us spending more time in Charlotte NC than we had any desire to do so. I mean, it’s a nice enough airport and all, but not where we wanted to be.

OK, also Michael’s phone seems to have broken himself. So now he has to decide what he wants to do. I’m recommending sending the thing back (it’s still under warranty) and getting a new phone, and selling whatever they send him as a replacement. Personally, I may try and talk him into a Blackberry, since I think it’s the best phone for what he does.

But we’ll see what happens.

Meanwhile, I’m still getting my photos from the Denver trip together–probably finish sorting through them this weekend, since I’m still a little sleepy from the flight back on Tuesday/Wednesday.

So thank you again to Janiece and Anne for hosting us. Can’t wait till we can all get together again!

I discovered some time ago that I am somewhat of an outlier among the UCF Trollops–I do not have an obsession with footwear. Yes, I find it important, and I am willing to spend money on shoes, but that’s because I want shoes that are comfortable, and because many shoes hurt my feet, I will put down money for shoes that are comfortable when I’m walking around all day long.

But as footwear is important to the other members of the Trollop Brigade, I tried to get into the spirit of things. Here are the results:

Ah Timberland! I wore the “WVU pair” home on the plane. So comfortable!

And most importantly, cotton socks! In black and gray! Awesome!

Can you guess where we went immediately after this picture was taken?

We arrived in Denver safely yesterday, as did Jeri. Trollopy things were done, and although pictures were taken, I have not yet downloaded any pictures (I’ve got the netbook instead of the laptop, and installed Gimp only yesterday)

Today is the day of relaxation at the spa. Michael will nose in his have his nose in his laptop in the interim.

Addendum the First:
There will not be much posting here, but I have been Twittering, including using TwitPics.

Well, we’re back at the Charlotte airport, waiting to go on to Denver. Flight is booked, near us are two children running around very loudly.

Wish us luck!

Due to problems with the plane, we are spending the night in Charlotte instead of Anne’s house in Denver.

But, I’m on vacation, and Michael is with me, so it’s okay.

I don’t care if you were here first. This is MY seat.

Happy Birthday Michael!

I really hope you like your birthday present, since I came up with the idea more than a year ago.

No pressure!

Regarding the “carry your guns across the country” bill that was defeated today, I have to say that as much as I believe in a liberal reading of the second amendment, I think that being able to conceal carry anywhere in the US because you have a permit in one state is a poor idea.

Mostly I’m posting this because I’m curious what other people think. (Especially you Andy.)

Thank you for the books!

I didn’t order them, though they were on my wish list, and there wasn’t a packing slip, so I’m just assuming Amazon decided I needed more books. (I DO!)

YAY!

And THANKS!

Ready? Set? Associate!

record

The Farmer’s Market had zucchini this week, so I decided to make zucchini bread. I tried the recipe in the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book.

What was interesting was that the loaf with nuts turned out much paler than the loaf without nuts. Considering that the recipe called for nuts (and raisins which I left out) I found this surprising.

The bread, however, is not at all sweet. And is drier than I’d expect. So I think I’ll see if I can find my old zucchini bread recipe and leave this whole wheat recipe behind.

The zucchini were so cute!

Less cute now.

One of the eggs had a double yolk.

Here’s the loaf with nuts, looking rather pale.

Here you see the two loaves side by side.

I won’t bother give you the recipe, because I don’t at all recommend it.

I fully expect this week to be just as rough as every other week this summer. However, I am looking forward to Friday, when I get to escape for awhile.

In the mean time, another game of sorts.

When I was a child:

Pluto was a planet
You had to lick stamps

I have Black Eyed Susans along the driveway where the bulbs come up in the spring. It works out quite well, since they black eyed susan foliage comes up just as the leaves of the bulbs are starting to die.

It is somewhat amazing this bee could even fly.

I still have some day lilies blooming.

Firecracker flower with aster in the background.

Maow?

I got nothing. You can:
1) continue yesterday’s game of word association
2) go check out my book blog
or
3) insult me in this comment thread.

Ready? Go!

Yup. It’s Wednesday.

Today’s Word is: pie

Tasty Tuesday: The All-American Dessert Book by Nancy Baggett

As I’ve repeatedly whined, I’ve been too busy to do much of anything recently, and unfortunately, that includes cooking and baking–I haven’t made anything since my birthday. Boo!

So lacking anything of my own for you today, I want to tell you about one of my favorite cook books.

I picked up The All American Dessert Book on a whim, but immediately fell in love. First it was with the pictures. The book is full of color pictures of the desserts in the book, but what I love best about the pictures is these are desserts that look like they were made by a real human being. Often cookbooks present photos of perfect food that you know you are never going to be able to recreate in your own kitchen, and so instead of even trying, you decided to fall back on an old standard. But these pictures show pans and dishes that have been used, and food that looks like you could easily recreate it in your own kitchen, instead of some ideal food made by an artist.

These are the kinds of pictures I want to see in my cookbooks. That’s not to say that my desserts look as good as the ones in the book, only that the photos in the book don’t look unachievable.

But enough about the photos, what I really want to talk about are the recipes.

Oh. Yum.

I have tried many of the recipes in this book, and loved almost all the recipes I’ve tried. And here are some of my favorite recipes from the book: Deep Dish Apple Pie, Molten Lava Chocolate Cakes, Chocolate Pudding, Chocolate Chunk Coconut Pecan Chews, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, Sugar Cookies with Strawberry Icing.

You’ll notice that several of those recipes are familiar and I’ve featured them here. And there are many more recipes I want to try.

So if you’re looking for a cookbook that has a little of everything, with clear and easy to follow recipes, I highly recommend The All-American Dessert Book.

I’ve known Del since I was 19. That would make it… er…. twenty years. (Yikes!)

When he and Kathy got married, I was in their wedding, and Del was one of the bridesmen when Michael and I got married.

Here are some pictures from our quick visit this weekend. Notice that both their kids seem to have inherited Del’s sense of humor.

Poor Kathy!
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I’m still adoring my new camera.

On the garden end of things, we haven’t had rain in awhile, so I’m actually having to make sure to water my flowers or I’m going to lose some of the my hydrophillic ones. But it’s not too painful a task, since I have a soaker hose set up.

Balloon plant. I love the color of these flowers.
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Kat and the edible packing peanuts.

Thank you Anne!

Edible packing peanuts. Tasty cat snacks!

There you go Eric!